My family and I are off to Seattle for a week. It's our old hometown, where my wife and I met and our son was born. We haven't been back in a few years, want to see the old sites and visit some great friends. So there probably won't be any movie posts till the 14th. I'm going to try and write some reviews on my laptop, on the long drive up, we'll see how that goes, but they probably won't get posted till I get back.

Being an editor, I couldn't resist cutting together a little something before we left. I recently found this old super-8, stop-motion test footage, shot in Seattle from our place on Queen Anne Hill, buried on one of my hard-drives. I thought it'd be fun to put to some music. The song is "Modern Inventions" by The Submarines.

eRATicate was the first film I ever made. It was finished only six years ago, which seems like a lifetime ago, in how far I've come in terms of my filmmaking skills. I'd always had an interest in making films, but never had the nerve to do it, till I came up with this idea and a new friend of mine, who was a film student, pushed me to go ahead and make it. Lending me his knowledge, super-8 camera, and skill as a cinematographer. I'm glad he did, because I may never have gotten off my ass to do so, and I wouldn't be able to make a living as an editor today.

It always bugged me how dull and gray this film looked, it's not the look I intended. It was shot on B&W super-8, and then transfered about the worst way possible, by pointing a video camera at a projection of it. Something came over me recently, and I spent some time going over it, correcting the lighting and contrast, making it true B&W, darking some scenes and lightening some others. I had an urge to re-edit it as well, the film is too loose for my current tastes, but laid off, because I wanted to leave it as a reminder of where I started and the music behind it is one written piece and I didn't want to cut that up as well.

If you're interested in seeing more of my work visit: